Israel - Palestine Conflict (26115-1)

Damning
new evidence of Israel's abuse of Arab children has emerged, adding
another tier to the stack of human-rights violations committed over
the past six weeks of violence.

It
comes amid deepening controversy surrounding the visit to the region
of Mary Robinson, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, whom Israel's
Foreign Minister has refused to meet to discuss accusations of
excessive force.

A
report by Amnesty International released last week, but barely
publicised, describes how Arab teenagers have been arrested in the
middle of the night, subjected to high-pressure interrogations
including beatings and held behind bars for more than a month.

The
focus of Amnesty's latest investigation was not the Palestinians
taking part in riots in the occupied territories, many scores of whom
have been shot dead by the Israeli army, but members of Israel's one
million Arab population.

Hundreds
of Palestinians living within Israel have been arrested after riots
erupted in Arab towns early last month in protest over killings by
the Israeli security services in the early days of the intifada. Some
have been held in custody, denied bail or immediate access to
lawyers.

Amnesty's
findings are further evidence that, after moves towards reform,
Israel is slipping back into the pattern of widespread human-rights
violations that characterised the first six-year intifada.

It
includes the story of two young Palestinians in east Jerusalem who
say they were beaten, shackled, and kicked while lying on the ground
with hoods on their heads. They say they were repeatedly slapped
during interrogation. One said that 20 police officers entered their
detention cell where he and 30 other young Arabs were held and
randomly beat them with batons.

Israel's
Arab population a fifth of the total has long complained of
sweeping civil-rights violations by the Jewish majority. But the
riots, the worst in the 52-year history of the state, dealt a severe
blow to the already strained inter-ethnic relations. Thirteen Israeli
Arabs were killed during the unrest.

According
to Ha'aretz newspaper, the security forces have drawn up plans to
fortify Jewish communities close to Arab villages in Israel on the
grounds that they are next to "hostile populations". The
government plans to begin a major demographic drive to increase the
Jewish population in predominantly Arab areas, notably Galilee.

Amnesty's
report states that Palestinians arrested, including children (those
under 18), were beaten, shouted at, and threatened while indetention.
It says that a round-up of Palestinians is still continuing in
Israel, a month after the riots ended. Although they are mostly
accused of relatively minor public-order offences, some have been
held in custody for weeks in what the Israeli authorities justify as
an effort to establish calm.

The
human rights group also says that several hundred Jews were arrested
after anti-Palestinian riots, some of whom have also been badly
mistreated. But a far higher proportion of Palestinians have been
kept behind bars.